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When Randy woke up, he found himself on the roof of an unfamiliar house. He tried to think of how he got there, but his memory was blank.
“Ninja?”
Jerking his head around, Randy came face to face with Viceroy. Panic gripped his throat and heart at once. His head spun, and Randy couldn’t help the soft moan of pain that escaped his larynx.
“It’s okay,” Viceroy soothed. “You’re alright. I won’t hurt you.”
Viceroy reached his hand out, and Randy immediately hurried back.
“S-stay back!”
“Okay, okay, that’s okay,” Viceroy spoke with his hands in front of him. “You’re alright; you’re safe.”
Randy shook his head. Everything ached, and the world darkened.
“Ninja, I need you to take a deep breath for me; can you do that?”
Willing his lungs to work, Randy sucked in a breath of air. It was shaky, but he managed.
“Good, good. I want you to hold it for the count of four, okay?”
He obeyed.
“Now release.”
The breath came out with a cough.
“Now hold for four seconds.”
The cycle repeated until Randy stopped gasping and coughing for air. Viceroy smiled in victory.
“You with me?”
“Mmmhmm,” Randy hummed. “Thank you.”
“Of course; I know a panic attack when I see one,” he shrugged. “Now, you wanna tell me how you ended up on my roof again?”
The last time Randy was here, he felt out of place. Now, he still wasn’t sure why he came to Viceroy. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust the other (honestly, he didn’t trust many people, to begin with). If anything, Viceroy had proven himself already.
“Ninja?”
“I dunno,” Randy mumbled. “Didn’t mean to.”
“I believe I told you if you ever wanted to talk, I’d be here. The same applies to injuries too. Or anything, really.”
Randy winced.
“Are you hurt?”
He shrugged. Viceroy sighed.
“Ninja, I can’t help you if you won’t let me.”
“I-it’s not that,” Randy started.
“Then what is it?”
“Not much you can do with a concussion.”
“Maybe not, but there are things you can do to help it heal faster.”
Randy hummed noncommittedly.
“Will you allow me to look?”
At that, he tensed.
“You don’t have to remove the mask,” Viceroy backtracked. “I can see if there are any other injuries we should worry about, and you can decide what we do about them. How about that?”
Slowly, Randy relaxed and nodded.
The concussion check was easy (Randy already knew he had one; he was lucky it wasn’t bad). The search for injuries, however, was not. Trying to see where he was bleeding from or how big a wound was was difficult.
So, Randy chose to take the mask off. Viceroy immediately closed and covered his eyes.
“What’re you doing?”
“Making it easier,” Randy replied.
“But your identity—”
“It’s okay. I trust you not to tell anyone.”
It took a bit more convincing, but Viceroy dropped his hands and opened his eyelids. Randy waited for the comments to come, but there were none. Instead, the scientist started looking where the blood spots were.
“So, what were you fighting to get these?” Viceroy questioned.
“Just your run-of-the-mill bad guy,” Randy replied. “Didn’t realise he had a knife until whoops .”
“I like you, kid.”
“Hey, that’s Ninja to you, sir.”
Viceroy chuckled. Things might not be good, but he knew things were looking up.
And he had a feeling the kid knew it, too.